China: Gratuitous cruelty and vulgar content should be banned in games

On July 31, the ChinaJoy Gaming Exhibition and Conference opened in China. One of the directors of the Propaganda Department spoke at it. He outlined how the situation with the gaming market in the country looks from the point of view of the Chinese government.

Analyst Daniel Ahmad told about the speech of the official — deputy director for Publications — on his Twitter. According to him, the representative of the regulator identified five main topics.

1. The State positively assesses the role played by the games this year

We are talking about the emergence of educational projects that told people about COVID-19. The official also noted that gaming companies in some cases proved themselves to be a socially responsible business.

They also mentioned: significant revenue growth of Chinese gaming companies and the growing quality of products appearing on the market.

2. The Government continues to fight the gambling addiction of minors

As part of the campaign against addiction, a new system for identifying users by their real name will appear in September. Also, a special system will be introduced into the games to prevent addiction in children.

Compliance with the rules will be closely monitored. The government is confident that this will ensure the safe growth of the gaming industry.

3. China is now focusing on the quality of content

The official said that the new licensing process of games is aimed at ensuring that high-quality games appear on the market in the first place. And, according to him, the market is moving from a focus on quantity to a focus on content.

Another thing is that it is not entirely clear what quality content is. But there is a hint. Immediately, the Director of Publications mentions the need to introduce traditional Chinese culture and its values into the games.

4. Strict content control will continue

If the introduction of traditional culture into games is rather a wish, then the compliance of content with ideological values and norms is already a requirement.

The representative of the government separately emphasized that there should be no gratuitous cruelty or vulgar content in games.

5. Various measures will be taken against violators of the system

All games on the market must be licensed. Otherwise, they will be deleted.

The same is waiting for those projects that are a reskin or a copy of the game created to promote better products.

Fines will be increased for those companies that violate the regulator’s policy regarding games.

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Despite the tightening of the licensing policy and the associated slow issuance of ratification numbers, China’s gaming market remains one of the most profitable in the world. In the first quarter of 2020 alone, he earned $10.34 billion.

And the situation is unlikely to change in the near future. According to the official information of the Tianyancha commercial database, 22 thousand gaming businesses were registered in China in the first half of this year alone.

Also on the topic:

• In August, Apple will remove games that do not have a license from the Chinese App StoreChina has banned games with English words and virtual marriages
• In China, it is proposed to introduce a system of age ratings
• Is there any news?